The St. Johns herald., 1887-09-22

that in the course of a few years
 every arable acre will be absorbed
 unless severe measures put a stop
 to wholesale plunder. Acting, therefore, in the name of the peo-
 pie, Secretary Lamar has said in emphatic language that land rob-
 bery must end, and end now. That
 indicates broad policy, a national policy, a policy which recognizes the magnificent future of this coun- try and prepares for the increase of population which is inevitable.
 Look at this particular case. The government has been extremely generous to the Atlantic and Paci- fc Railroad Company. As an en- couragement to build their road it gave them outright the odd sections in a belt of territory twenty miles wide on each side of their tracks for thousands of miles on certain reasonable conditions. That is to say, the road was to be built in the middle of a belt of land forty miles wide, which belt is divided into  sections a mile square. Every odd section-one, three, five, etc.-was free gift to the company, the even sections-two, four, six, etc.-being reserved for settlers. The railroad, it was believed, would increase the value of the settlers farms, and the settlers would increase the value of the company's land. The bene- fit was mutual. and the government would help the railroad and at the same time help the people.
 So far so good, and no one com plains. Since it might happen, however, that one of the odd sec- tions ceded to the company would already have Q settler on 1t, and in order not to disturb him or his farm, another belt of territory was withdrawn from settlement, so that the company might choose a square mile in lieu of the one partly oc- cupied by the farmer. Please bear i'll mind that there was no author ity for this, and MT. Lamar says, "I should at least have such doubts of the existence of such authority as would have restrained me from it's exercise" It was simply an ad- ditional act of generosity piled on top of an act already sufficiently generous. Still, it was done, and made a prece edent.
 Now, then, how have some of the companies repaid this generosity? Why, when they found Guilford Miller settled on a well cultivated farm within these indemnity limits they refused to take unoccupied land and arbitrarily said, ''We want Miller's farm" Under a republican regime they would have got it. But MT. Cleveland said to the Northern Pacific "Hadds off! A man shall not be crowded because he is poor. You may have two hundred million behind you, but you can't have that farm" The Northern Pacific saw that MT. Cleveland meant what he said, and to-day Miller has his farm.
 An now Mir. Lamar has taken an- other step in the same direction. These indemnity lands were to be granted on condition, first, that "the said company shall commence the work on said read within two years from the approval of this act by the President ;" second, that they should complete not less than fifty miles per year after the second year," and third, that they should "construct, equip, furnish and com plete the main line of the whole road by the fourth day of July, anno domini 1S7S."
 Those were the stipulations agreed to. We'll, the company did not keep their contract. They did not commence construction within the time named they did not pros ecute the work as requirad; they did not complete the line at the specified date. Indeed, nine years L - ,-,,.J c;,ooo 1 Q7Q onJ tho 1ino